Disaster!!!! The management of the past 28 years is leaving the Crest because of a number of things. The owner wants management to pay a higher rent and fund much needed upgrades: 100 year old pipes and new restrooms, new AC, digital projectors and more. After Oct 31, 2014 the Crest will no longer be as it was. Right now it is up in the air as to what will happen. See the Sacramento Bee article here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/26/6654089/anderson-longtime-crest-operators.html

As mentioned in the post above, the closing of the two basement theatres attached to the Crest has apparently taken place in early March 2013. Even worse news for the independent/foreign/alternative film scene in Sacramento it has been announced by the Crest that the main auditorium will not be showing films 7 days a week any more. There are no films at all on the schedule for the last half of March and very little lined up for April. Looks like it will be mostly performing arts and dark days for the Crest for the foreseeable future! Not good news at all for downtown or us regional alternative to mainstream film fans. Now all we have left for that fare is the rather shabby Tower!

Ah, Don – I think you have your links mixed up somehow; the link you posted in the comment of of August 4, 2010 points to a postcard of the Grand theater in Grand Island, NB in the 1930s, and the link in your comment of August 5, 2010, is not a link to the Crest website, but to a postcard showing the Crest in the 1940s. The Crest’s website is listed correctly in the headnote, above.

The Crest is having a big night October 16th (or thereabouts) for the showing off of new renovations and the anniversary of the opening by showing the first film shown there, “That Midnight Kiss” for the original opening night ticket price of 60 cents.

Sacramento, Calif. – Two suits for damages totaling $176,344 were filed in superior court as an aftermath of the collapse of the Hippodrome theater marquee last September 14. Damages of $100,500 were asked by the husband and parents of Mrs. Jessie Shirley Potter, 41, of Alta, who was crushed beneath the marquee. Suit for $75,844.50 was filed by Joseph Brady, 40, who said he suffered a skull fracture, broken collarbone, permanent brain injury and loss of hearing in one ear when he was hit by the falling marquee. Defendants in the actions are the Empress Theatre Co. of Sacramento, successor to the Hippodrome Theatre Co., Inc., West Coast Theatres Corp. of Northern California, Fox West Coast Theatres Corp., the Campbell Construction Co., the Physicians Building Corp. and several John Does.

The CREST succeeded the HIPPODROME theater, whose marquee had fallen, killing a woman. Since then the CREST has been a beacon for Sacramentans looking for a movie or a concert since it opened on October 6, 1949 with a gala event and the showing of “That Midnight Kiss,” starring Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza. The stars were on hand.

On the site where the CREST now sits, 1013 K St., the EMPRESS Theater vaudeville house opened in 1912. Its name later was changed to the HIPPODROME, and it became a full-time movie house in 1927.

In 1946, the HIPPODROME marquee collapsed, injuring three people and killing Mrs. R. S. Potter of Alta, in Placer County. The theater janitor said the marquee fell in “just one big drop.” The theater owners decided to gut the structure to the walls and build the CREST inside. At the peak, Sacramento boasted 26 downtown theaters.

When I worked for the Sacramento Music Circus there was an old program hanging around from the Sacramento Theatre Company that had a map of all the old theaters around downtown before 1930. The Hippodrome was mentioned and the article stated that Maude Adams flew as PETER PAN in that theater, but I don’t recall the date. I thought it was 1910, but if that was true, then the theater was actually the Empress at the time. Anyway, I think it’s cool that the original Broadway Peter Pan flew in Sacramento.

I wonder if that photo can actually be as early as 1914? Some of the cars look a bit advanced for that date. But clearly, the Empress Theater in the photo is the same the building (or at least the front of the building) that became the Hippodrome. If the Crest web site is right about the construction date of the Empress, that would push the building of the Hippodrome back to 1912, and, if Hippodrome is to be an aka for the Crest, then Empress Theater should also be an aka.

And most likely they began showing movies in this theater no later than 1920, since an organ was installed that year. I don’t think pure vaudeville houses ever bothered to install organs.

Tom DeLay’s comment of October 5, 2005, says that the organ for the Hippodrome was shipped on February 28, 1920. If it went directly to the theater then the Hippodrome was most likely opened in that year. The Crest’s official web site gives no date for construction of the Hippodrome, but only says that it converted from vaudeville to movies in the late 1920s.

The Crest web site also says that the Hippodrome’s predecessor theater, the Empress, was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. But there’s a card in the California Index headed “THEATRES—SACRAMENTO—GRAND THEATRE” that cites an item published in the regional entertainment paper, The Rounder, issue of February 3, 1912, saying “Jim Post buys the lease on the Empress Theatre, formerly the Grand.”

If this was the same Empress Theatre that was torn down to make way for the Hippodrome, then the building was older than the authors of the Crest web site think it was. And if the Empress was an older theater, merely renamed, its demolition in 1919 would make more sense than if it had been newly built in 1912.

Those Gold Rush panels that Don S posted about can be found in a few former Fox West Coast Theatres in Southern California. (Village in Westwood, El Portal in North Hollywood, California in Huntington Park)

I worked the Crest as a relief man for the Sacramento IA local in the late 60s. At that time it had three projectors – two Century and a Simplex. I used to run the trailers and a short (Universal News or a cartoon, I can’t remember which). It was one of the prettiest theatres I ever worked.

The Crest is something to be experienced. Few places hold so much beauty and wonderful energy. I worked there for about three years (1998 – 2001) and it was a great moment in my life. So many interesting people and performers come through those doors. I’ve seen a million films there, and so many concerts I can’t remember them all. Everyone, from Cab Calloway to Nirvana have graced it’s stage. If you are ever in Sacramento I cann’t tell you enough…visit this most historic and wonderful theatre.

While waiting for agaes for Greyhound bus connects back to San Francisco, my wife and I came across the magnificent Crest by sheer and wonderful surprise. We peered through the lobby doors and were smiled at by “Syd” a lady who opened up and gave us the “royal tour.” It was a most memorable visit and we’re so pleased to see the Crest is alive and well!

Earlier in this thread, two people claimed seeing “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the Crest in 1968. I think this is highly doubtful considering “2001” played an exclusive run at the Esquire from the time it had its area premiere in June 1968 through spring 1969. Perhaps the posters were thinking of a subsequent engagement. But then, perhaps one theatre is being confused with the other.

It seems a lot of people have fond memories of seeing “2001” in the theatre. For those folks, here’s a link to a little something I researched regarding its original release. Page 2 of the article is a list of the original hard-ticket, reserved-seat roadshow engagements. Well, most of ‘em anyway.